Sir Bryan Nicholson, who will head up the new FRC that will incorporate the soon to be defunct Accountancy Foundation, will warn the ICAEW at its annual conference today that he expects the funding of the expanded body to be twice that of the current FRC and foundation’s budgets combined.

The new FRC will be funded in equal parts by the government, private business and the accountancy profession. Each sector could be asked to provide up to £4m a year to help run the council. The body will officially assume the role of accountancy watchdog in April 2004 but Nicholson expects the FRC to assume many of the responsibilities before that, according to the Financial Times.